1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer which records images on a recording medium by writing the images on the recording medium on which the images are to be recorded, while transporting the recording medium in a predetermined transport direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printers are known which record images on instant film sheets. Such printers are equipped with a media pack compartment to be loaded with an instant film pack containing multiple instant film sheets stacked together. Also, a claw is installed on a side of the media pack compartment to hold the rear end, in a transport direction, of one of the instant film sheets loaded in the media pack compartment and rake up the instant film sheet in the transport direction. Furthermore, a mechanical section including cams is installed on a side of the media pack compartment to cause the raking motion of the claw.
An image is recorded on an instant film sheet as follows: the first one of the instant film sheets in the media pack compartment is raked up at the rear end by the claw through rotation of the cam and the like, transported by a transport rollers, and irradiated cyclically with lights from light-emitting elements with red (R), green (G), and blue (B) luminescent colors to write a latent image, and then a developer pool of the instant film sheet is squeezed by distribution rollers to distribute a developer (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-221761).
As described above, conventional printers have a mechanical section including a claw and cams which are installed on a side of the media pack compartment. The amount of raking movement of the claw (travel distance of the claw) is relatively large, and the cams and the like in the mechanical section have sufficiently large sizes accordingly. This makes it difficult to reduce the size of the printers.